པ་ sive than it was stated to be by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman), in his remarks. The amendment excludes from the right of suffrage, in the election of members of the constitutional conventions, all those persons who are excluded from the right of holding office under the constitutional amendment proposed by Congress at the last session. Now, I presume that, instead of there being but six thousand persons excluded from the right of holding office under the United States, or under particular States, by the language of the constitutional amendment, the number is more likely sixty thousand, or perhaps still more. The exclusion includes, observe, not only officers of the United States, but officers of the several States; it includes persons who may have served in the State Legislatures; it includes all judicial officers of the States; it includes all State magistrates, all State constables, no matter at what time they may have been selected for, the duties of their offices, nor how humble those offices may have been. This constitutional amend ment casts a net over the Southern States, and sweeps within its fold all the local officers who may have held office under the several States at any period of time, be it forty or fifty years ago. Taking the whole mass of those persons, the number must be very great; and instead of being six thousand, as the Senator from Ohio supposes, the number must be ten times as great, or more. It will include every person of special intelligence, of peculiar qualifications for the discharge of public duties throughout that whole country-every man now alive who has ever been chosen, even to a local neighborhood office, so humble as magistrate or constable, during the last half century. "Now, what does the first amendment from the House do? It proposes to disfranchise all these persons from the right of voting, and from the right of voting at an election the most important that can be conceived with reference to their interests, the formation of for themselves, to endure for all future time, or governments until the same power which establishes them shall modify or amend them. Instead of being an insignificant provision, a matter of little moment, it is a very important amendment; it is ter, and one to which the Senate ought not to best sweeping and proscriptive in its charac agree. "This second amendment informs us that this bill is not a finality, is not a settlement, is not an against the Southern section of the country, by the following vote: YEAS-Messrs. Brown, Cattell, Chandler, Conness, ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, Dixon, Doolittle, Grimes, Guthrie, McDougall, Norton, Nye, Riddle, and Sprague-10. On March 2d, the President returned the bill DOCUMENTS). It was then reconsidered by the to the House, with his objections (see PUBLIO House and passed-yeas 135, nays 48. with the bill, was considered, and the bill was In the Senate, on March 2d, the message, passed by the following vote: YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Cattell, Chandler, ConFoster, Fowler, Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Harris, Henness, Cragin, Creswell, Edmunds, Fessenden, Fogg, derson, Howard, Howe, Johnson, Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Nye, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Ross, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sunner, Trubull, Van Winkle, Wade, Willey, Williams, Wilson, and Yates-38. NAYS-Messrs. Buckalew, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, and Saulsbury-10. Doolittle, Hendricks, Nesmith, Norton, Patterson, ABSENT-Messrs. Brown, Guthrie, McDougall, and Riddle-4. The second session of the Thirty-ninth Con adjustment of this subject of national difficulty and dispute. We are informed by it, that after these governments are set up pursuto the extraordinary provisions of the bill, gress closed on March 4th, 1867. Numerous day are to have no validity or force as State acts of importance were passed, some of which governments; they are to be subject still to our bill and to by nothing. After they are set up, by a mere breath we may sweep them away. "I say, then, that instead of this being a tire franchise in the Territories; which prowere as follows: An act to regulate the elec vides that hereafter there shall be no denial of the elective franchise in any Territory on account of race, color, or previous condition of measure of reconstruction, it is simply a step in servitude. An act to establish a department the course of aggressive and violent measures of education, for the purpose of collecting such facts and statistics as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country. An act to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States. An act to abolish and forever prohibit the system of peonage in the Territory of New Mexico and other parts of the United States. The acts relating to the finances of the Government and to the Army and Navy are stated under those titles respectively. In the last moments of the session, the President signed and returned under protest the act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the ensuing year. The objectionable provisions, the President said, "were contained in the second section, which in certain cases virtually deprives the President of his constitutional functions as Commander-in-chief of the Army; and in the sixth section, which denies to ten States of this Union their constitutional right to protect themselves in any emergency by means of their own militia." These sections were as follows: SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the headquarters of the General of the Army of the United States shall be at the city of Washington, and all orders and instructions relating to military operations, issued by the President or Secretary of War, shall be issued through the General of the Army, and in case of his inability, through the next in rank. The General of the Army shall not be removed, suspended, or relieved from command, or assigned to duty elsewhere than at said headquarters, except at his own request, without the previous approval of the Senate; and any orders or instructions relating to military operations, issued contrary to the requirements of this section, shall be null and void; and any officer who shall issue orders or instructions contrary to the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor in office; and any officer of the Army who shall transmit, convey, or obey any orders or instructions so issued, contrary to the provisions of this section, knowing that such orders were so issued, shall be liable to imprisonment for not less than two nor more than twenty years, upon conviction thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That all militia forces now organized or in service in either of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, be forthwith disbanded, and that the further organization, arming, or calling into service of the said militia forces, or any part thereof, is hereby prohibited under any circumstances whatever, until the same shall be authorized by Congress. After a brief debate, an act was passed, entitled "An act to fix the time for the regular meetings of Congress." It is as follows: That in addition to the present regular times of meeting of Congress, there shall be a meeting of the Fortieth Congress of the United States, and of each succeeding Congress thereafter, at twelve o'clock meridian, on the fourth day of March, the day on which the term begins for which the Congress is elected, except that, when the fourth of March occurs on Sunday, then the meeting shall take place at the same hour on the next succeeding day. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no person who was a member of the previous Congress shall receive any compensation as mileage for going to or returning from the additional session provided for by the foregoing section. Approved, January 22, 1867. Another act was also passed, "to regulate the duties of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, in preparing for the organization of the House, and for other purposes." The first section was as follows: That before the first meeting of the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, the Clerk of the next preceding House of Representatives shall make a roll of the Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all persons claiming seats as Represent atives elect from States which were represented in the next preceding Congress, and of such persons only, and whose credentials show that they were regularly elected in accordance with the laws of their States respectively, or the laws of the United States. In the House, a motion was made to proceed to the election of Speaker. Mr. Brooks, of New York, said: "Mr. Clerk, Oregon-George H. Williams, 1871; Henry W. Corbett, 1578. Kansas-Edmund G. Ross, 1871: Sam'l C. Pomeroy, 1878. Neroda-William M. Stewart, 1869; James W. Nye, 1873. I observe in calling the roll there are sixteen absent States, six of which have been called by the Clerk, but have no representation upon the floor of this House, and ten of which, although upon the list, have not been called by the Clerk. "Mr. Clerk, twenty States are about to proceed to the organization of this House in the midst of a crisis, ay, in the midst of a revolution -civil I hope it is to be-the very gravest it has ever been the fortune, or the misfortune of our country rather, to pass through. Of the Maike John Lynch, Sidney Perham, James G. Blaine, original States, there are now absent, of the HOUSE. In the House the following members answered to their names: Frederick A. Pike, John A. Peters, New Hampshire-No credentials presented. Smith. Luke S. Poland. Massachusetts-Thomas D. Eliot, Oakes Ames. Ginery Rhode Island-No credentials presented. thirteen original States which framed the Constitution of the United States, the work of our Vermont-Frederick E. Woodbridge, Worthington C. fathers-seven of these original thirteen have no Representatives upon the floor of this House. My attention has been called to the fact that there are precedents which authorize not alone this extra, but this very extraordinary convocation of the Congress of the United States, but there are no precedents in our political history which justify the assembling and organization of this House while so large a number of States the absent States, with the power and right to are absent, and with so short a notice given to represented here. New York-Stephen Taber, Demas Barnes, William New Jersey-William Moore, Charles Haight, Charles Pennsylvania-Charles O'Neill, Leonard Myers, William Delaware-John A. Nicholson. Maryland-Hiram McCullough, Stevenson Archer, Chas. Kentucky-No credentials presented. engis-Norman B. Judd, John F. Farnsworth, Abner A Logan. -William A. Pile, Carman A. Newcomb, Thom Noell, Joseph J. Gravely, Joseph W. McClurg, Robert 1. Van Horn, Benjamin F. Loan, John F. Benjamin, George W. Anderson. Michigan Fernando C. Beaman, Charles Upson, Austin Drizzs. Jora-James F. Wilson, Iliram Price, William B. Allison, liam Loughridge, Granville M. Dodge, Asahel W. HubWisconsin-Halbert E. Paine, Benjamin F. Hopkins, A Cobb, Charies A. Eldridge, Philetus Sawyer, C. C. Wabburn. California-No credentials presented. Minnesota-William Windom, Ignatius Donnelly. West Virginia-Chester D. Hubbard, Bethuel M. Kitchen, Daniel Polsley. Serada-Delos R. Ashley. Nebraska-No credentials presented. The following members failed to answer to their names: Elibs B. Washburne, of Illinois; Samuel J. Randall, of Pennylvania; and Rufus Mallory, of Oregon. be "Sir, there are those who believe this is not as thus assembled a legal, constitutional Congress. I am not lawyer enough to pronounce an opinion upon that point. I do not believe it to be a de jure Congress, nor that this is a de jure Government created by this Congress; but I recognize it as a de facto Congress, if not de jure, and therefore I obey its authority as I would the authority of a de facto government Tartar, the Comanche, the Ojibway, or the if I were under the dominion of the Turk, the Potawattomie. I respect authority wherever it may be presented. I bow to the omnipotence of force, and entertaining these views, which are concurred in by those who act with me on party questions, we bow, but while we bow, we have prepared a solemn protest against any further revolutionary action upon the part of this House until a full Congress is assembled. "And now, Mr. Clerk, I will proceed to read the protest, which, in due time, I shall ask to have entered upon the Journal of the House, against any further action of this House of Representatives until an organization can be properly and legally effected: Whereas, it appears by the record just read that the following States, seventeen in number, are not now represented upon the floor of this House; the States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, ConnectiGeorgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, cut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Arkansas, and Nebraska-States entitled by the act of Congress of March 4th, 1862, and subsequent acts, to a representation in Congress as follows, namely: New Hampshire, three Representatives; Rhode Island, two Representatives: Connecticut, four Representatives; Virginia, eight Representatives; North Carolina, seven Representatives; South Carolina, four Representatives; Georgia, seven Representatives; Florida, one Representative; Alabama, six Represent atives; Mississippi, five Representatives; Louisiana, five Representatives; Texas, four Representatives; Tennessee, eight Representatives; Kentucky, nine Representatives; California, three Representatives; Arkansas, three Representatives; and Nebraska, one Representative; in all, eighty congressional districts now unrepresented on the floor of this House; and whereas of these unrepresented States, seven are of the original thirteen that in 1787 met in Convention and created the Constitution of the United States, namely: New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, a majority of the original thirteen: Therefore, We, members-elect of the Fortieth Congress, do now enter our most solemn protest against any and every action tending to the organization of this House until the absent States be more fully represented: James Brooks, New York; A. J. Glossbrenner, Pennsylvania; William S. Holman, Indiana; W. E. Niblack, Indiana; J. M. Humphrey, New York; John A. Nicholson, Delaware; Charles A. Eldridge, Wisconsin; M. C. Kerr, Indiana; P. Van Tromp, Ohio; Stephen Taber, New York; D. M. Van Auken, Pennsylvania; B. M. Boyer, Pennsylvania; Lewis W. Ross, Illinois; S. S. Marshall, Illinois; Charles Denison, Pennsylvania; Fernando Wood, New York; Stevenson Archer, Maryland; J. Lawrence Getz, Pennsylvania; T. E. Noell, Missouri; W. Mungen, Ohio; W. E. Robinson, New York; Demas Barnes, New York; John Fox, New York; Albert G. Burr, Illinois; John Morrissey, New York; F. Stone, Maryland; George W. Morgan, Ohio; Charles Sitgreaves, New Jersey; Charles Haight, New Jersey; John W. Chanler, New York; John V. L. Pruyn, New York. The Clerk declined to entertain the paper. Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, said: "I do not propose to submit any extended remarks in reply to what has just been said by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Brooks). This body is assembled in pursuance of law. That such is the case is recognized by the gentleman from New York and his associates from his and their presence here. He seems to have forgotten that for more than four years ten of the States enu merated by him, in the paper which he has just read, waged a fearful war against this Government. But that fact has not been forgotten by the people, nor is it forgotten by the Representatives of the people here assembled. I will not attempt to review the precedents he has cited in connection with former extra sessions of Congress. This is not an extra session; it is the first regular session of the Fortieth Congress, convened in pursuance of law." The motion was then agreed to, and Mr. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, was elected Speaker, having received 127 votes, and Mr. Sanuel S. Marshall, of Illinois, 30. The committee of the two Houses appointed to wait on the President reported that he had no communication to make to Congress at this time. In the Senate, on March 7th, Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, offered the following resolutions: Resolutions declaring certain further guarantees required in the reconstruction of the rebel States. Resolved, That Congress, in declaring by positive legislation that it possesses paramount authority over the rebel States, and in prescribing that no person therein shall be excluded from the elective franchise by reason of race, color, or previous condition, has begun the work of reconstruction, and has set an example to itself. Resolved, That there are other things remaining to be done which are as clearly within the power of Congress as the elective franchise, and it is the duty of Congress to see that these things are not left undone. Resolved, That among the things remaining to be done are the five following: 1. The existing governments which have been declared to be illegal must be vacated, so that they can have no agency in the work of reconstruction, and will cease to exercise a pernicious influence. 2. Provisional governments must be constituted as temporary substitutes for the illegal governments, with special authority to superintend the transition to permanent governments, republican in form. 3. As loyalty beyond suspicion must be the basis of permanent governments, republican in form, every possible precaution must be adopted against rebel agency or influence in the formation of these govern ments. 4. As the education of the people is essential to the national welfare and especially to the development of those principles of justice and morality which con stitute the foundation of republican government, and as according to the census an immense proportion of the people in the rebel States, without distinction of color, cannot read and write, therefore public schools must be established for the equal good of all. 5. Not less important than education is the homestead, which must be secured to the freedmen, so that at least every head of a family may have a piece of land. Resolved, That all these requirements are in the nature of guarantees to be exacted by Congress, without which the United States will not obtain that security for the future which is essential to a just reconstrucion. the table. On March 11th they were considThey were ordered to be printed, and laid on ered, and laid again on the table. In the House, on the same day, Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, offered the following resolution: instructed to report a bill, declaring who shall call conventions for the reorganization of the rebel States, and providing for the registration of voters within said rebel States; and all elections for members of said conventions, or for the adoption or rejection of constitutions formed by said conventions, or for the choice of public officers, State and municipal, until the constitutions of said States shall have been approved by Congress, shall be by ballot. Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be It was adopted-yeas 114, nays 33. Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, offered a resolution, instructing the Judiciary Committee to continue the investigation of charges against the President, etc."Mr. Speaker, this resolution will bring the House to a vote on a question of transcendent importance. It brings us face to face with a man whose usurpations have imperiled the Republic. We cannot escape the considera tion of this question if we would, and we ought not if we could. The report which the Judiciary Committee of the last House made on Saturday is a sufficient vindication of the action of that body on the charges presented, looking to the impeachment of the President. It is a report which the moral sense of this nation will approve. It is to be regretted that that com mittee were not authorized at an earlier day to proceed with this investigation, so that they might have completed it and presented the case for final action by the last Congress. All true men, who have examined this matter impartially, can but regret our inability to secure earlier action. "But I think I may, without hazard, express the opinion that there is no cause for discour agement; that the foundations have been so carefully laid that the machinations of the conspirators and their chief, with all the immense power and patronage in his hands, will be unable long to stay the doom which awaits him. It is, sir, to go upon the record of this House, and it will go into history, that the people of the United States will never permit any President to usurp the prerogatives of the law-making power; nor will they permit him to defy the deliberately recorded verdict of the nation." The resolutions were adopted. In the House, on March 7th, the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary, when appointed, be instructed to report a bill declaring who shall call conventions for the reorganization of the rebel States, and providing for the registration of voters within said rebel States; and all elections for members of said conventions, or for the adoption or rejection of constitutions formed by said conventions, or for the choice of public officers, State and municipal, until the constitutions of said States shall have been approved by Congress, shall be by ballot. On March 11th, Mr. Wilson, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill supplementary to an act entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1867. The bill, which was read, provided in the first section that the commanding general in each district defined by the act of March 2, 1867, to which the bill is supplementary, shall cause a registration to be made before the 1st day of September, 1867, in each county or parish in the several States included in his district, of the male citizens of the United States twentyone years of age and upward, resident in each county or parish, which registration is to inclade only those persons who are qualified to vote for delegates by the act to which this is supplementary, and who shall have taken and subscribed the following oath or affirmation: I of, in the county or parish of, in the State of, do hereby solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am sincerely and earnestly attached to the Union and Government of the United States; that I will steadfastly support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and that I will to the best of my ability engage all others to such support and obedience. So help me God. The second section proposed to enact that whenever the registration provided for shall be completed, and copies thereof returned to the commanding general, he shall cause to be held in each State of his district, on a day not less than thirty days from the date of his proclamation thereof, an election of delegates to a con vention for the purpose of forming a constitution for the State, and of firmly reestablishing a civil government loyal to the Union therein, and of passing all needful ordinances for putting such constitution and government into operation. The third section provided that the convention in each State shall consist of the number of members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature of such State under the constitution thereof existing January 1, 1860; and the election districts, as existing on that day, are to be observed in the election and the assignment of delegates. The commanding general of each military district is to assign as nearly as may be to the several election districts in each State within his jurisdiction the number of delegates to which it may be entitled, according to the number of registered voters within its limits; but each district is to be entitled to at least one delegate. In the fourth section, it is provided that the commanding general of each district shall appoint such loyal officers or persons as may be necessary, not exceeding three in each election district, to make and complete a registration, to preside at the election, to receive, sort, and count the votes, and to make return to him of the votes, lists of voters, and of the persons elected as delegates by a plurality of the votes cast at such election; and upon receiving such returns, he is to open the same, ascertain the returns of the officers who conducted the elecpersons elected as delegates, according to the tion, and make proclamation thereof; and within sixty days from the date of the election he is to notify the delegates to assemble at a tion, to proceed to the organization of a contime and place to be mentioned in the notificavention. framed a constitution, in accordance with the When the convention shall have act of March 2, 1867, the constitution is to be submitted by the convention to the persons registered, under the provisions of this act, at persons appointed by the commanding general, an election to be conducted by the officers or as already provided, and to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of notice thereof, to be given by the convention; and the returns thereof are to be made to the commanding general of the district. The fifth section provided that, if according to such return the constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the votes of the electors qualified as already specified, the president of the convention is to transmit a copy of the same. duly certified, to the President of the United States, who is forthwith to transmit the same to Congress, if then in session, and if not in session, then immediately upon its next assembling; and if such constitution shall be declared by Congress to be in conformity with the fifth section of the act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States, and if the other provisions of that act shall have been complied with, the State is to be declared en |